14 Dec 2021

Implementation of projects funded under the Economic Recovery Transformation Plan (ERTP) in the South East District Council (SEDC) is progressing well.

Briefing the full council meeting Monday SEDC chairperson Mr Oshima Peloewetse said through ERTP which was introduced in the third quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year, the council managed to implement construction and maintenance of educational facilities, in particular, primary schools to address backlog.

Mr Peloewetse said the council would continue to implement construction and maintenance of educational facilities in the district to the tune of over P3.8million under phase two of the ERTP.

He told the meeting that construction of an ablution block at the Boatle bus rank was ongoing.

On destitute housing, he said the council was building nine houses, of which construction of three had just commenced on sites in Tlokweng, while six were for South East South.

Mr Peloewetse said at the beginning of the financial year council submitted a project memorandum for the 25km Tlokweng roads network infrastructure.

He said the over P38million project memorandum had finally been approved and the tender was currently floating for design and consultancy services.

The Chairman noted the district’s sanitary Landfill, which was commissioned in 2005 was of late experiencing operational challenges.

“The landfill caught fire on two occasions this year on August 27 and November 14 owing to a number of factors, mainly the limited resources to cover waste on daily basis. The Council will engage Ministry of Local Government and Rural

Development regarding the possibility of financing the equipment and plant such as Tractor Loader Backhoe, Tipper trucks, bull dozer, fire-fighting equipment, among others,” he said.

He said availability of the equipment and plant would ensure the landfill operated as per the standards and that supervision of staff at the site would also be intensified as any laxity could make the landfill inoperable.

On Youth Development Fund (YDF) Mr Peloewetse decried poor loan repayments, noting over P34million had been disbursed since the inception of the programme with 382 projects funded in the South East District. He said out of these projects 200 were operating after grace period while 52 collapsed.

“The targeted amount per quarter is P35, 087.70 and only 66 per cent was collected. Some of the challenges besieging this programme are that most beneficiaries are not committed to servicing their loan component thus defying the initial mandate of the fund,” he said.

He said some beneficiaries intentionally failed to respond to the office’s efforts to collect payments even after a reminder had been sent and during monitoring when the office made arrangements to visit them.

He also noted that operational spaces posed a big challenge to some youth businesses due to high rentals, resulting in their collapse.

Mr Peloewetse said about 995 businesses had benefited from the industry support fund, which was meant to cushion the informal sector from the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that six horticulture projects were also assisted under the ISPAAD Horticulture Impact Subsidy during the quarter to the tune of over P600 000. Ends